December 9, 2025 • 58 mins
"Beginner's Love," chapter 17. Norma Klein's 1983 YA novel is going off the rails and we're here for it. Berger and Ingrid "play doctor" and he reveals his secret with a truly bananas twist. Meanwhile Joel has the worst birthday imaginable thanks to an ill-advised card from Leda. Seriously, what were you thinking, Lee?! Molly and Jody talk about Courtly Love, laundry tips, and frenemies. Thank you to Blume Head Angela for a great letter! It's a (sometimes) Judy Blume book club. Join us every other week!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hi, I'm Jody and Mollie and you're listening to the
Bloom Saloon.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's a Joy Boe book Club and Norma Klein book Club.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm you know, we just have to give a nod
to Norma because we've been with her for like three
months now, or however long it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
You know how sometimes a twenty one chapter book can
take you three months to read, you know, sometimes.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
You just need to really dive deep into the nitty
gritty and ponder every sentence.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But we are on track to finish this book by
the end of the year, which is good because I
had to already adjust my Goodreads reading goal because I
was just not as prolific this year as I would
want to be. So this book is doing a lot
of heavy lifting in terms of getting to my new goal.
(01:08):
So I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wait, what is your goal?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So I set my goal that For the past couple
of years, my goal has been thirty books in a year,
and I've usually gotten there, I've surpassed it. But this
year I spent a lot of time trying to read
books for book club that I didn't like, and I
spent a lot of time trying to like them and
I didn't end up. So I wait, I not the wasted,
(01:35):
but I noodled. I didn't finish as many books as
I started, So I'm making my new goal twenty four
and I'm almost there.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So yeah, yeah, that sounds very impressive.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I think besides the podcast books, I have read one book, WHOA,
You're busy? I used to be such a reader. I
was a book club girly, but I read it and
New York Times crossword puzzles have really taken up my
free times, so that's my excuse.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What are your favorite subreddits? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Usually it's like whatever reality show I'm watching, so right now,
Secret Lives and Mormon Wives selling the OC, selling Sunset
and r slash laundry. I'm really into r slash laundry.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What is on r slash laundry?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Oh, just like the greatest laundry tips. Do you know
about spa day for your sheets? No?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What a spa day for your sheets?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Spat day for sheets and towels is when you take
all your sheets and towels that may seem clean, but
you put them in a bathtub with like barracks and.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Borax and laundry soda and some things and the water
comes out like a deep muddy brown.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I learned about that, and I did it a few
months ago. It was pretty impressive. Wow. And the real
formula for proper laundry is actually so there's there's two camps.
There's some people that believe firmly in laundry soap, which
is the more it's like literal like soap flakes. That's oh,
(03:31):
people did it before the modern era. So I did
buy these like soap flakes for Marseille, France that are
like hands and milled in cauldrons. But oh my god,
I'm doing that for a long while. And then I've
recently discovered I think it's called it's a leap leap pass.
(03:53):
It's an enzyme and it's like the one and only
enzyme you shall look out for in laundry detergent. And
the easiest way to get it is in the old
school tied powder. I have to be the powder, so.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That with.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
A rint cycle of boric ass is a game changer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh my gosh, can you like feel the difference?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yes, Oh my gosh, I'm begging you on my knees.
Please please make a video that's your laundry routine. Okay,
I'm not kidding. I need to see.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That, Okay, I will.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Wow, I didn't know you were a laundry head. This
is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I didn't know either until I discovered redded.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I do think that's like a getting older thing. Is
like all of a sudden, you get really nerdy about
like household stuff, like the amount of fridge organization videos
I'm watching, the amount of like Sunday Reset videos I'm
watching like it is my favorite show ever. I love
it so much. Oh fuck well, I mean I have
(05:10):
a communal laundry space, so I don't think I'll be
up to all that, but I am so fascinated in this.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Now, do you have a bathtub?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I do?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Every day? Is in your future?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm scared of what Elsie.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But it's like popping a z it right, It's like
scary but so satisfying.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I love that. Wow, amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I love what I'm doing instead of reading.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Worth it worth it me? Reading doesn't get my house
any cly. In fact, it's the opposite.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, so today we're reading another whole single chapter, chapter seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes, but before we get into Beginner's love let's take
a moment and have a Judy minuti, which is where
we spend one minute or more or less to talk
about the most Judy bloom thing that happened to us
this week. So, Jody, what is yours?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Mine is very reminiscent of Sandy Pressman in WiFi and
her husband was his name Norm? Norm.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think sounds right, but I'm really scared about what
you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, it's actually not what you'd think. It's regarding dog poop. Oh,
they spend a lot of time in that book talking
about their dogs sticks and wheeze. That's always stuck with
right sticks and wheeze, And they tally their sticks and
wheeze once they've done the dog walking. And I notice
(06:57):
that like Tyler and I kind of do the same thing.
It's very like when the dogs go outside, it's always
like did they poop? Did they poop? There's there. I
don't know what it is, what it is about dog
owners and monitoring the poop, but it's you gotta you
gotta know. So I just had that moment We're like, oh,
(07:19):
I understand the sticks and wheeze.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Now you updated your beloved on how much the dog
sticked or weed.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's a good it's a good way to bond.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's good. I love that. I'm so proud of you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So that's me. It's kind of boring, but I'd love
to hear yours.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So, as I mentioned previously, my friend Melissa from high
school just moved into the floor below me and it
has been a game changer. It's so fun. Like we
don't even hang out that much, but what we have
been doing is doing chores together and that is bliss.
It's so fun. And the most recent chory did together,
(08:01):
it was Monday or Tuesday night. I was showered in
my gym jams on the couch watching TV. It was
probably ten o'clock and she texted me. She's like, when
I get home from work in about twenty minutes, will
you help me with a mission. It was like, great, absolutely,
I will put regular clothes back on, come meet her
(08:24):
at the door. And we got outside and somebody had
left the desk on the side of the road at
our house and she's like, will you please help me
carry this desk in? And it was the most romantic
thing that has happened to me in so long because
I don't know if I've expressed on this podcast. I
(08:45):
love picking shit up off the street. Yeah, and I
find my neighborhood in Hollywood to be a bountiful harvest.
Just oh, I am hunting and gathering stuff on the
street like you wouldn't believe. Half of the furniture in
my apartment is this way. Some of my dish I
found a lovely dish set I found one time. I
(09:08):
found a fully wrapped DVD of Spice World like it.
It is bountiful. Now it is jealous. Yeah, it is
sad because I feel like once or twice a quarter,
the thing on the street is like a big box
of screenwriting books or like acting books.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Very specific Hollywood trash.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, well, whenever I see a box like that, I'm like, oh,
I'm imagining they actually they got their dream job. And
so they're like, I don't need a book like this.
I could write a book.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But I love picking up trash on the street. And
almost everybody in my life hates this about me. So
to find someone who shares my passion and who I
can enable, uh is beautiful. So we hauled this. It
was a beautiful mint green desk and vanity that was
(10:05):
just lying on the street and was one of the
legs broken. Absolutely did it have any knobs on it? Well,
no it didn't. But we hauled it up from the
street into Melissa's apartment at like ten thirty and I
felt such joy. So I feel like that's friendship.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I that is true friendship. I love that, and I
fully am with you on street treasures. There's not a
ton around my area. There's plenty of stuff on the street,
but it's all like, it's very depressing. It's all like, uh,
like someone died, and there's a bunch of like disability
mobility devices like an old like bedpan or something, and
(10:47):
then a lot of baby stuff too. So yeah, you know,
it's really life cycle oriented. Everyone wants your fucking crusty
ass booster seat. No, so I'm very jealous of you.
That sounds so fun and amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
A similar thing did happen the other day when I
was walking on my street and there was a pair
of dentures on the street, Like, this is so funny
and disgusting. I hate that I saw this, but I
also love that I saw this.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Oh, someone is national. I wonder if there was an
old man fire and he pulled out his dentures.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He knocked his denters out. Yeah, maybe you gotta hope.
You gotta hope. Do we have any letters before we start?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
We do. We have one short but very informative letter.
This one is from Bloomhead Angela. She says, HI, love
your podcast. You asked about the negative teen pregnancy book
that lead a reference. Oh, it sounds like Mister and
Missus Bojo Jones from nineteen sixty seven. I have an
(12:01):
old copy of it, but it may still be in print.
Looking over to your new episode.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
WHOA Mister and miss do you want me to read
about this? Okay? It appears to be a nineteen sixty
seven novel by Anne Head Oh. It was made into
a made for TV movie starring Desi Arnez Junior.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
That's Cool? Football hero Bojo Jones and his girlfriend July
are in love. On the night of the prom. They
do what so many couples in love do. Soon, July
finds out that she's pregnant with Bojo's baby, and suddenly
the life they once knew is over. Now mister and
Missus bo Jones must come to grips with a very
(12:51):
adult decision that they must make. It's a situation that
holds more possibilities and challenges than they ever bargained for.
It could bring them closer or drive them apart. As
the baby grows and changes, so will they. Oh and
then the front the cover I see on thrift books
is very sexy and good and the subtitle on the
(13:14):
cover is She's sixteen, He's seventeen. A pregnant bride and
her bewildered groom playing a grown up game with adult consequences.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh that is good.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
That does sound like what's being described.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh I see the cover you're referencing.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah. Who they're doing kind of a spider Man kiss?
They are. Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
The actors in the TV movie are very cute and
very little looking. They look like children.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh yeah, yikes, that's horrifying. Those are baby beats. Wow.
Does nice Junior, very handsome. I never knew. I guess
checks out but makes sense. Wow, good Paul, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Thank you so much, Bloomhead Angela appreciate that one. Let's
remember this for a future book maybe.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah yeah, put a pin in mister and missus
Bojo Jones.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, should we get into the book.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Let's get into the damn book. We're reading chapter seventeen.
Ooh cool, okay, so for roll call. Sorry. We have Joel,
who is seventeen going on eighteen, okay, Lisel. We have Leda,
(14:39):
who I believe is also seventeen. We have Mom who
is a galerina, and Dad who is a food critic.
Then we have Burger, Joel's friend, who is also seventeen.
And we have Ingrid, who is Burger's crush, who is
a twenty four your old doctor. I'm adding emphasis because
(15:03):
this will be important in this chapter. But Burger seventeen,
Ingrid twenty four, just making that clear. We also have
a tiny cameo for me and Jim teacher missus Jizinski,
mister Jinzinski. And that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, okay, so I want to read the first sentence
of chapter seventeen. You're gonna find this hard to believe,
maybe impossible, But Berger actually went to bed with the
lady doctor whoa.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh. I was reading it this morning and I screamed,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Is this real life? Are we in a dream?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Molly?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Like, let's pinch ourselves and yes, I think we're awake.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Wow. I will say this chapter had many such moments
like this, but I was like, true, what the fuck true?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So yeah, Burger and the lady doctor have slept together,
and Burger is just smitten, and he also can't believe
it happened. No, and he's telling Joel all about it,
and he brings up this concept where medieval knights fall
in love with their royal ladies and it's kind of
like a forbidden love, you know, and typically not sexual.
(16:27):
And I guess they learned about this in school and
it's called courtly love. Yeah, I know. We both did
some research. My content is mostly from Wikipedia, but I
also found oh my lot of articles and it was
almost overwhelming with how much information there is about courtly love.
(16:48):
But basically it started off as a literary concept, so
Troubadours and poetry and the theme being nobility and chivalry,
where knights set out on adventures and performed deeds for
these noble ladies. Originally created for entertainment of the nobility,
so imagine these you know, it's basically their version of smut,
(17:10):
like ooh, the knight who wants me? But it kind
of carried over into like medieval pop culture and attracted
a larger audience, and so loving nobly was considered to
be an enriching and improving practice. And there's all sorts
(17:32):
of scholarly writing on courtly love, and it seems like
there's two camps. Some scholars view courtly love as proclamation
of femininity, and it's like a spiritual moral force, and
it's very noble, and it's in contrast to what they
call the ironclad chauvinism of the time. The thought is
(17:55):
that perhaps the Church viewed it as sexual rebellion, and
then other scholars think it was more tied to the
Church's effort to civilize the crude, feudal codes of the time.
The prevalence of arranged marriages required other outlets for the
expression of a more personal romantic love. So it was
(18:18):
not the reaction to the prudery of the Church, but
to the nuptial customs of the era. So this was
more of like an outlet.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If you have to marry this guy that your dad
picked out for you, don't worry. You get to also
lust after this other guy.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Because he is surely in love with you.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, so interesting. Did you have any did you find
any other info?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I did, so. I was wondering because I feel like
I learned about this in college when we were reading
the de Cameron. But I know a lot of people
read that in high school, so I that's where this
came about. But they talk about it a lot in
terms of like ar Threian legends. I think probably the
(19:10):
two best examples of Courtney love one not Courtney love.
The best example of Courtney love is celebrity skin. I
think the courtly love are Lancelot and Guinevere. So if
you know, Gwenevere is King Arthur's wife, but Lancelot luss
(19:34):
after her even though King Arthur is his best friend,
and they don't. I don't believe they consummate it. But
that's like the whole deal with Courtney love is like.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Courtly I came saying, Corney love.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, Courtney Love consummates. Okay, so I have to take
a sidebar. I'm so sorry. The sidebar I have to
think is I was listening to a podcast with Tony Hawk,
and Tony Hawk was talking about taking his family on
a vacation and he's like, we took all of my
sons and daughters and everybody and their spouses. But we
(20:07):
left my grandson at home with this other grandma, and
I took a beat, like, wait a second. Francis pin
Cobain is married to Tony Hawk's son, meaning that the
other grandma in question is courtney love. What a wild thing?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Incredible?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Okay? And the other example of courtly love in literature
is usually Dante and Beatrice from Dante's Inferno, because he
like barely knows her and yet is going to helen
back to see her. And then the one author describes
courtly love as having four basic principles. So number one,
(20:52):
the love has to be illegitimate and furtive. Number two,
the male lover is in an inferior position and the
woman in an elevated one. So far, so good. Three
the man does quest test or trials in the woman's name.
And number four there is an art to it, such
as chivalry. So basically they like codified being nice to
(21:18):
a lady and deferring to her.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That's the thing. I was like, Oh, this all sounds
like what it should be.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Right O. Yeah not no, yeah, so we should all
be courtney love.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
This is interesting. All that said, Joel muses that courtly
Love never sounded very convincing to.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Him, so, yeah, we bet we know, we know, maybe.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He was more of a Kurt Kobaan guy. Yeah, Burger
does see parallels between himself and these nights, you know,
with a lady doctor. He's been very chivalrous and respectful
and basically all those four things, and he found out, Wow,
ladies like that. He's having this moment where he's finally
(22:11):
realizing that women don't really like when you're just trying
to get them in bed all the time, and I
just it really blows his mind. But it's very sweet,
it is.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Do you want to read that part that starts with well,
the thing is sure, it's so funny. It's right after
Joela is saying Courtney co.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yes, here you read it?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, Well, the thing is I think one reason I
turned off so many girls was that I was so
much on the make. I really acted obnoxious. All I
thought of when I was with them was how to
get them into bed. They thought I was awful.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I was.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I used to go home understanding perfect how they felt.
If any of them have done it with me, I'd
have thought they were total jerks. And this is this
is funny to remember how we first met Burger. And
we first met Burger like clowning on the girls in
the movie theater, Like we met him in the most
(23:17):
obnoxious way. So to have him come around and be like, whoa,
that wasn't the way is.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Very refreshing, very refreshing. Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I love Burger. I honestly, I will say I feel
like our early investment in Burger is paying dividends.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, we know how to pick them, we do.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So. Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Joel's asking like, but yeah, but like how did you
have sex? He really wants to get to the meat
of the story. Burger's, you know, weaving this beautiful tale
of like how he wooed her. But Joel's like, excuse me.
At the chase, Joel.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Keeps going like, did you get very fought?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, totally. So we learn that Ingrid, the lady doctor,
had Burger over one night and she cooked for him. Okay,
this part is a little suspicious to me though, because
he said she cooked something, and Burger is known for
(24:22):
his attention to detail and storytelling. He talks about what
so and so was wearing, what something smelled like, felt like,
the fact that he didn't have a name for the
dish that the lady doctor cooked him. I'm like, oh,
is this made up? Is he making this up? That's
just my spidery sense cooked something.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You don't think what he says right after that explains
maybe why they didn't know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Okay, okay, so let me I'm I'm definitely dilly dowling.
Let's get to the tell me more part. So, yeah,
she cooked some thing. They smoked a few joints.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, that was the part that I was talking about.
I'm like, they don't care, they're just.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I true, true, true. He lets its slip that he
will he's not sure if he'll go to college next year.
Oh and he's like, oh shit, that's not like what
a twenty four year old man would be saying. But
guess what everybody Ingrid has known all along that he's
(25:30):
a high schooler. She has known ever since he broke
his foot on the beer bottle, because en route to
the hospital, I guess she searched his pockets for ID
and found all his like school id stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Wait you mean this is really serious?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, I'm just horsing around. Oh, what's wrong with you?
It's the most serious thing that's ever happened to me?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Don't you listen? I do well.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I'm gonna marry her. I don't care if I have
to wait until she's seventy five and I'm sixty eight.
I'll wait until I'm sixty eight. You want to know something,
you know, I consider myself a realist, right, even sort
of cynical maybe, I mean certainly not like you, kind
of dreamy and vague, and hey, okay, scratch the dreamy
(26:25):
and vague. But don't you basically think of me as
fairly down to earth, well ingrid. There's no other girl
I want, and there would never will be. That's it.
That's the bottom line. I mean, I really believe that
we were destined to me. I believe all that total
worship I used to laugh at and it's all due
to you me.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, because what if.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
You hadn't wanted me to come along to that Simon
and Garfuncle concert, we'd have never met.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I thought you said it was destined, so you'd have
met anyway. Maybe you should be grateful to the beer bottle.
What if you I've been tripped on it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Don't joke. I'm never drinking anything but beer for the
rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So wait, what happened after she told you she'd known
all along you were in high school?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Huh you want the dirty parts?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Sure, Well I got all confused and embarrassed and said
I'd only lied because I was scared she wouldn't want
to see me if she knew my real age. She
said she thought people were whatever age they thought themselves.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Az.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Her grandmother was ninety four and the youngest person in
spirit of anyone she knew. God, I love her family.
Don't they sound great? A ninety four year old grandmother.
Her father is a tool and die worker, whatever that is.
They're real like people. They eat in the kitchen, they
(27:50):
grow their own.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Vegetables, eat in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
They're Jewish right right for generations back.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
So your parents won't have a fit.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Fuck my parents. I don't care. I don't care if
no one in my family ever speaks to me again.
Hope he's good. She'll love Ingrid. I know it. Everyone
will love her. You can't help it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
She huh, she's just well, how did you get her
into bed?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
God? You really have changed. You've got a dirty mind.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I'm giving you all this wonderful background material, and.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
You have to tell me.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I just mean, I know it's embarrassing, that's all. Well.
She just said, after saying all that stuff about age,
that she thought I was a very mature, sensitive, wonderful person,
and she sometimes had the feeling that maybe my feelings
weren't just as platonic, and she thought it would be
best if we talked about it. So I said they weren't.
(28:49):
I mean, I didn't say I'd been thinking of nothing
else since I met her. I was reasonably cool for me.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
What did she say?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
She just looked at me and smiled. She has such
a great smile. God, and she said, my feelings aren't
totally platonic either, and then we kind of kissed each other,
and about three seconds later we were in bed. I
was so nervous. It wasn't even I mean, I didn't
even in some ways enjoy it. I mean I did,
(29:20):
but I just had this strange feeling like it wasn't
really happening, or that was some kind of joke, or
that she disappear. That was exactly the same feeling. Remember
when he first had Lida in bed, if he closed
his eyes, she would disappear, So wow. Okay, first, what
do you think of this? What was your reaction?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Mollie, Oh boy, I love Burger and I understand being
charmed by Burger. I don't love the age gap of
a twenty four year old woman having sex with a
seventeen year old kid. I know that it's the impact.
(30:01):
I think culturally we feel like the impact is different
if it's a woman who is older. But I don't
love the optics of nows. But if I divorced that
from that, I'm really happy that Berger is so changed
in that he is having this profound experience. And yeah,
(30:29):
so I feel both both ways at once.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I know me too. I'm so torn like this is,
you know, sounds like it's good for him, who knows
what's gonna happen, but for now, like he's ecstatic, he's
a changed man. But I do keep thinking of you know,
there's so many of the stories about like the hot teacher.
It's like the Mary kay Laturno's over and over and
(30:53):
over again, and they're always like around like twenty four
first year or second year teachers. There's something about that
age where now I'm looking up Mary Kayla Turno's age,
I think, oh, who was a bit older.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I know, I was looking up Aaron Taylor Johnson and
that is a bigger age gap too, So it's not. Look,
it's not the worst age gap ever. And it's just like,
I just think it squicks me out a little bit
when someone is in high school and someone is in college,
because I just oh, and even that, like she started
her professional career, so she's like fully out of school
(31:31):
and he's in high school, and that feels weird to me,
even if it is like it's your tail end of
your senior year of high school, Like, it feels weird
to me. I wouldn't want my son dating someone that
was that much older, Yeah, I would, just I would
be so curious what a woman that age, even with
(31:53):
like a really mature like fun high school or like
Burger is. I I would feel icked.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Out about it same. I mean, I really do think
so much of it is like the probably the Gaga
eyes he's giving her and the attention, and he makes
her feel like the only woman in the world, So
I get it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They get it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Throughout this conversation, Joel's noticing something different about Burger among
all these other things, and it turns out Burger's not
smoking like he usually would be. Uh Ingrid has gotten
him to stop smoking. Even she's like really worry about him.
She had a cousin that died of lung cancer, and
she says she's been lying awake in bed worrying about him.
(32:41):
And then he's even gone and apologized to mister Jazinski
for how he was acting, I mean, truly reformed. Mister
Jazinski is like, thank god, I thought you were going
to murder a president.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
WHOA where's that come from?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And then we find out it's Joel's birthday.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
According to astro talk dot com, oh here's this Okay,
I'm going to read specifically an aries Man in love.
It says there's nothing quite like being in love with
an aries man. He's passionate, intense, and always up for
a good time. If you are lucky enough to be
in a relationship with one, you will never be bored.
(33:47):
Aries men are known for being impulsive and spontaneous. Thus
you can expect your fair share of surprises, keep your
sense of adventure strong if you want to keep him.
He's incredibly communicative and wants to know all about you.
He's very physical and will express his love through touch,
and he's not afraid to show his feelings and I'll
always be honest with you. And in general, Aries is
(34:11):
a fire sign and the men are passionate, daring, and
full of energy. I don't know if I feel that
relates to.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Oh no, I sounds much more like Burger.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I guess the physical touch thing makes sense, but I
don't know. I mean, I don't feel like that's an
ARIES thing. I feel like that's like a teenage boy thing.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, it's so hard to say they want to be touching.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, okay, But the thing that is hanging over his
head is he's still worried about Leida being pregnant. And
his parents give him two hundred dollars for his birthday.
So you know, I had to whip out the inflation calculator.
So in nineteen eighty three, getting two hundred dollars has
(34:59):
the same buying pass as six hundred and fifty five dollars. Wowwive,
So that is a nice little chunk of change.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Wow wow Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So he's really hype because he wants to use it
to buy a new stereo.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yes, I like that. He describes his current stereo as cheesy.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I don't know what that means in the stereo context,
but he goes the one I have is Okay, it's
basically kind of cheesy. But if you like music, a
good system can make a big difference.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Okay, he's a music connoisseur, remember, say yeah, oh oh wait,
I bet we could figure this out.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Let me look. April nineteen eighty three is when this
takes place. Hold on, are we.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Looking up stereos?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
No, I'm looking up calendar. Oh okay, so he said
his birthday is on a Tuesday. So his birthday? Guys,
we figured it out. His birthday is April twelfth, Okay,
the day the Titanic.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Say, oh, I think that's also Hitler's birthday.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Is not Hitler's birthday for twenty.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Oh that's right. Who is April twelve?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Let's see April twelve? Famous birthdays?
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Maybe it's an ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Listen, it was either Hitler or my ex boy Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Clar Danes, Clar Danes.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Tiny, Tim Brendan Ury Sheer, sharonan True, Thompson, Hilloe, Kardashian's
son daughter excuse me? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
And Beverly Cleary, whoa still crystal.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Oh boy, okay, oh and I'm sorry, Titanic heads, don't
kill me. I forgot Titanic sinks on April fifteenth, nineteen twelve.
My bad.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
They were still living large on the twelfth.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, they were, and they were having sex in people's cars. Okay, great, okay, excellent,
let's get back on track. M oh And So for
his birthday, Joel's parents are going to take him to
dinner at Windows on the World. And everybody knows Windows
(37:20):
on the World is a fancy restaurant downtown, but specifically
it's located on the one hundred and seventh floor of
the North Tower of the World Trade Center. So, yikes,
that deserves its own special report, and we'll do that
in our Odds and Ends episode. So if you have
any specific info about that that you want us to
talk about, let us know, because we did a preliminary
(37:43):
deep dive and there's so much that I just don't
feel comfortable squeezing it in anyway. They're about to go
to dinner and mom says, there's a letter for you
on your desk, but hurry because we gotta go, and
so he thinks it's from his aunt Muriel, and he
opens it. Oh gosh, snames my heart sink. He opens
(38:06):
it and it's a Father's Day card and inside it
said to the best father ever, much love on this
very special day. It was signed L and at the
bottom PS Happy Birthday. This was the second time I
screamed in reading this, what the.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Fuck were on your side?
Speaker 2 (38:29):
It's literally Tyra Banks. I was rooting for you. And
when I first when I first read this, I was like, Rida,
this is a pitch black joke. If you're making a joke, like, yikes, buddy,
that is fucked up. If it's a joke, we'll wait
(38:50):
to litigate on that, but initial reaction is.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yikes, yikes either way if it's a joke, if it's real,
it's all very dark, so dark.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Though. I didn't do this, but I thought about doing
One time. I had basically a couple of dates and
I slept with this guy and he was like very
distant afterwards and such that I'm like, I know he's
gonna like break up with me or whatever. And he
(39:24):
invited me out a couple weeks later, and I was like,
I just know this is gonna happen, that he's gonna
break it off. With me, and so an evil part
of my brain was like, should I make up a
pregnancy scare just to be like a prank, because it's like,
I'm not upset that he doesn't want to see me anymore,
(39:45):
but I think that he's really worried about like breaking
up with me, So it would be funny and dark
sided to be like I have some news. And I
didn't do that because I'm a normal person, but I
can relate to the evil part part of someone's brain
(40:07):
that would think that would be a funny, yeah thing
to do.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I think it's totally normal to have that like idea
pop into your head. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
But I would never do that because that would be insane. Yeah,
And so Luda sends him that crazy card and Joel
is like all in knots about it. But they go
to dinner and it's like really delicious and the view
(40:39):
is terrific, but he can't relax and his parents are
talking about going to Knox's wedding next week. Truly, I
don't even know. I don't think that conversation is worth recounting,
but like, no, they're.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Just like cheers to the mysteries of life. Yeah, Joel's
like cool.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Hey, So he got home and he lays on his
bed and he's like, I don't even want to call
Lda because I don't want to spoil my day more
than it's already spoiled. Yeah, but at like ten five,
Lida calls, Hi, we just got home from dinner. I'm
(41:18):
sorry I didn't have a chance to call earlier.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Did you get my note?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It had to be on your birthday.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Listen, would you like to eat out Saturday? I thought
I might take you out for your birthday.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Parents already dud I know.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
But this would be my treat. You said you like
Japanese food, and there's a really good place my parents
told me about down there.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Sure that sounds good, And that's the extent of the conversation. Hi.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
But Lyda being like, I'm sorry it had to be
on your birthday, Like you chose this.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
This is okay. So now that we're getting confirmation that
it's real and not an extremely evil prank, Lida what
the fuck?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Like she had to have known a few days earlier
to like have gone to get this card mail it
wait for the postage to arrive, so it is truly horrific.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Is so bad. It's so bad. Which also I feel
bad telling that story I just told And just for
the record, I would never ever do something like that ever, totally.
I am just joking with my friends. Yeh, a joke,
like you know, I would never ever do things like that.
I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think that's funny.
(42:45):
If I'm giving Leda the benefit of the doubt, I
think she is trying to be such a cool girl
about this. Yeah, and she always has a snappy answer,
and she is very funny that I think. I think
she's like, this is me being cool girl pregnant teen
again or and or I wonder if in Leita's mind
(43:12):
there is a world in which she sent this to
Joel and Joel picked up the phone and was like,
I love you. I'm so we will make this work together,
like let's do this. I do think pertaps there is
a version of her that kind of wanted that to
be the answer A little yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Interesting, Yeah, I think I think you're onto something there.
It seems like a test for sure, like wait till
he gets the card and then make a phone call.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Oh god, it's so bad. Don't ever do anything like this.
This is up.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Also, I'm like, she, you know, she's planning a sushi
meal knowing she's pregnant. I mean, maybe she doesn't know
you're not supposed to eat.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
But so in a world where people are like, I'm vegetarian,
all I eat is chicken, I don't think they know that. Like,
I feel like in the eighties a lot of people
are like still smoking and drinking with totally. I don't
think that's that big of a deal. No, but uh, yikes,
(44:22):
that sucks. And I like, I think Joel is reacting
to it poorly, but I don't think he was given
an opportunity to react to it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Well, yeah, I would probably react poorly.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I would react so poorly. Oh yeah, this sucks. I
hate I'm so, I'm just like upset. Yes, I just
I'll just read this. I'll just read this last paragraph.
It's really good. When I got off the phone, I
felt lousy. I wasn't sure if Leita had sensed how
I felt. Usually she's pretty sensitive about which can be
(45:00):
either good or a bad thing. The trouble is, I
still felt angry, and it wasn't just her letting me
know my birthday. It was the whole thing. Okay, I'm
not a girl, and so obviously I can't totally imagine
what it's like to make love knowing it might lead
to a pregnancy. But I think if I was, I'd
have been a lot more careful than Lida was. She
(45:21):
could have told me she left her diaphragm at home
that time when we were here. I had those condoms.
I could have used them. She hates it when I
say men are more organized than women and plan ahead better.
Maybe they don't always, but it seems to me if
men got pregnant, they'd be more careful. You wouldn't even
need to have abortions, Leda said. Okay, Leda said, if
(45:46):
men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. She read
that in some feminist magazine.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
That was the end of the chapter.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Okay, well, everybody knows that women more organized and plan ahead. Yeah,
and everybody knows that there would be GMO vacations or
social gatherings without women organizing and planning ahead.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, so drot that down.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, and uh it's you know.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
I I see what he's saying, because I do think
Leedo was kind of not as organized as she could
have been here. I think the things that Joel's not
taking into account is like, and how could he He's
like a seventeen newly eighteen year old boy, Like this
(46:36):
is this is like varsity level emotional intelligence. Yeah for
the eighties that you just wouldn't know or very few
people would think about. But like there is sort of
the sexual politics of her being like a young girl
and wanting to do really well by him and being
like sexy and fun and not ruined the vibe by
(47:02):
saying like, oh hey, pit stop, I don't know my diaphragm,
or like even or even like we kind of have
seen that. Like there are times when she's like, I
don't want to have sex and he's popping a bona.
So I think there is I don't want to let
Leada off the hook at all, because clear she's very
(47:22):
smart and very strident, and I think there are times
when she could acted way better. But I think there
is like an invisible dynamic here of her being socialized
to not think she could speak up for herself in
certain moments.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, and I'm just thinking about all the dumb things
I did, you know, regarding relationships and sex when I
was in college, so even a few years older than
her that were equally ill thought out and badly executed.
So yes, a lot of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Wow, So this is not where I saw this going.
I don't know, though, I kind of knew she was pregnant.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
I know, I feel like they were telegraphing it from
so far away.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
I thought maybe it was a red herring, like okay.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Ha ha ha. No. Yeah, before we end this episode,
let's do a segment that we like to do called
Yearbook Club, where we get a prompt and we go
through our old yearbooks to find stories. So the prompt
for this week was frenemie m okay.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
As always, these need a little bit of backstory.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
So this.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Entry was from what we called the Senior Supplement. When
I was a senior. They do this thing. It's kind
of like a non school sponsored publication. I don't know
who organized this and got it printed, but it basically
every senior gets as much space as they want to
like type up personal notes and inside jokes to all
(49:02):
their friends and then it gets like bound into this
little book from Kinko's. And but these these they are
so raunchy and like people I'm sure. I'm sure the
teachers slipped through this. I'm sure the parents did. These
are it's like full on, like allowing someone to read
your diary or But this one was from a fellow
(49:28):
senior name. She was the incumbent high school newspaper editor
in chief, and I was new at the school. I
showed up being like, I've worked on school papers before,
I have a better way. So so she here, she
(49:51):
comes into her senior year like working at the paper,
working her way up, thinking she's going to be the
sole editor in chief. And then I formed a committee
to make there be three editors in chief because that's
how we did it at my old school.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
And everybody was into this idea except her. So basically
we surped her and pork had to just sit and
take it. And so I don't think she liked me
very much, But she was also really trying to be
my friend, and I kind of cottoned on to the
(50:28):
fact that like maybe she was trying to keep her
enemies closer. You know. She would she would call my
house a lot and be like, what are you doing,
and I just and we weren't friends, and she would
want to like hang, and I just it was just
a vibe that was off. And so I would, you know,
I would tell my mom, like tell her I'm not
home kind of thing. I didn't handle it very well. Yeah,
(50:51):
and then I think she got the message, and then
we just didn't really speak for most of the year.
Bush she wrote in her senior Supplement two and this
was very unusual. I think she's the only person that
did this. But she wrote a note to every single
person in our grade.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Holy how many people were in your grade?
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Uh? They were like maybe one fifty holy shit, something
like that. Yeah, but they were very short notes. And
what she wrote to me was Jody Worthington always thought
I was your stalker?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Oh no, she knew.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
And then this is also very cryptic. She wrote, where's
your mother? Three question marks? I thought that she was
your prom date. I don't know what that means. I
don't think I ever knew what that meant. And it's
this is very related. It's very related to my previous
yearbook entry, which was my prom date. But I yeah,
(51:53):
I remember reading that and just like my heart sinking,
like thought I was her stalker. Oh I'm sorry. So
this doesn't really fall into the frenemi bokus okay, okay, oh,
and I do. I did read through what she wrote
to everybody, like as a reread, because this is pretty funny.
(52:17):
But she did list a good like twenty people and
said I don't know you guys too well, in fact,
not at all, but good luck and thanks for being
alive in my class and stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Oh my god, Sonny.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
You know iconic.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Wow, that's honestly you. You undersold that that's a really
good one.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Mine actually spans two yearbooks. So in my sixth grade yearbook,
someone wrote, Mollie, you are the smartest kid I know.
Have a great gr number eight summer but signed. And
(53:08):
I was like, huh, that name sounds familiar. And then
I remembered and I looked in my let's see my
junior year yearbook, and there's an inscription it says it says,
(53:29):
dear mo school spelled skool. School has been gay, but
now I get to see your sexy body all summer.
Don't be afraid to give it to me. Nick.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
It's like wow.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Oh. And then so I went to middle school with
this person. Didn't think much of them, and we went
to high school together, and I think I had a
class with them maybe, but I didn't think anything of
them until they wrote this in my yearbook, and then
I was like, oh, so there's a time in their
(54:13):
life when someone will write school was gay, and you'll
be like hello. So that summer, somehow we started like dating.
I guess because I think I gave him my phone
number and he called me one day and I went
(54:36):
out to dinner with him and his family, which is weird.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Oh this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, it gets more interesting. So that whole summer we
had like a phone call texting relationship, and then one
day I took my Razor scooter over to his house
in the afternoon and we did under the shirt stuff.
It was the first time I ever did under the
shirt stuff, and I really liked him, but I didn't
(55:05):
want to go all the way. And then he came
to my birthday party later in the summer, and he
came late, and I was really like a big big
timing him to all my friends before he came, I'm like,
oh my god, dish Ish my boyfriend. We've done under
the shirt stuff. I love dish Man. It's gonna be great.
I really like him. He's amazing. He shows up late,
(55:27):
he's like not affectionate to me. He gave me a
birthday card from his face. It wasn't signed from him,
it was signed from his family, and I had twenty
dollars in it. And then at the end of the party,
he's like, oh, my mom's not picking me up. How
(55:47):
am I gonna get home? And I was like, ah,
I don't I don't really know. I don't know. And
so he took my Razor scooter and went home with it.
And that was the last time I ever saw my
Razor scooter. Haha. Yeah and yeah, so that sucked. And
(56:10):
then further furthermore, I feel like every couple of years
he like slides back into my life and is like, hey,
what's up. And every time I'm like, every single time.
The last time this happened was I think last year.
At some point he like slides in and tries to
like get with me again, and every single time, I'm like,
that's nice. Where the fuck is my Razor scooter? Ah?
(56:34):
It was a blue Razor scooter and I never got
it back. Done. You touch my boobs and stole my
Razor scooter. That's it for me? Uh, huh turn into
it in front of me.
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Oh my god, really just like or had had some balls,
really did he really did? Really, don't give me that
sexy body. School is gay school?
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Hey? Number one school is gay.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
No, I'm not give me that body.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And I was.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I read that and I was like, oh, yeah, oh
the amount of like gay in our word horrible. I'm
sorry everybody, everyone. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
I to be clear, I don't think I was writing that. No,
I don't think I wrote it down, but I know
I at least said the other one. I didn't say
the first one because of a very impactful Hillary Duff PSA.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Oh I don't think we had PSA's like that, you know,
in the late nineties.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
So I don't do you know which one I'm talking.
Have you seen the Hillary?
Speaker 1 (57:45):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
It is a piece of art, but basically Hillary Duff.
Here's two girls trying on clothes and saying that, and
she pops out of the dressing room as Hillary Duff,
and she's like, when you say that, do you know
what you're saying? That's not nice? Change the generation. It
ended homophobia, single and love that.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I love that. That was so good, so good, bloomheads.
If you have anything to do with frenemies in your
your book, let us know. It can be very big,
very broad. We love these inscriptions, so keep them coming.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
Yeah, and let us know what you think the prompt
for the next episode should be.
Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, let's yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:35):
We'll leave it up to you. The power is yours.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, okay, bye bye
Hi, I'm Jody and Mollie and you're listening to the
Bloom Saloon.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's a Joy Boe book Club and Norma Klein book Club.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm you know, we just have to give a nod
to Norma because we've been with her for like three
months now, or however long it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
You know how sometimes a twenty one chapter book can
take you three months to read, you know, sometimes.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
You just need to really dive deep into the nitty
gritty and ponder every sentence.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But we are on track to finish this book by
the end of the year, which is good because I
had to already adjust my Goodreads reading goal because I
was just not as prolific this year as I would
want to be. So this book is doing a lot
of heavy lifting in terms of getting to my new goal.
(01:08):
So I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wait, what is your goal?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So I set my goal that For the past couple
of years, my goal has been thirty books in a year,
and I've usually gotten there, I've surpassed it. But this
year I spent a lot of time trying to read
books for book club that I didn't like, and I
spent a lot of time trying to like them and
I didn't end up. So I wait, I not the wasted,
(01:35):
but I noodled. I didn't finish as many books as
I started, So I'm making my new goal twenty four
and I'm almost there.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So yeah, yeah, that sounds very impressive.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I think besides the podcast books, I have read one book, WHOA,
You're busy? I used to be such a reader. I
was a book club girly, but I read it and
New York Times crossword puzzles have really taken up my
free times, so that's my excuse.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What are your favorite subreddits? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Usually it's like whatever reality show I'm watching, so right now,
Secret Lives and Mormon Wives selling the OC, selling Sunset
and r slash laundry. I'm really into r slash laundry.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What is on r slash laundry?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Oh, just like the greatest laundry tips. Do you know
about spa day for your sheets? No?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What a spa day for your sheets?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Spat day for sheets and towels is when you take
all your sheets and towels that may seem clean, but
you put them in a bathtub with like barracks and.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Borax and laundry soda and some things and the water
comes out like a deep muddy brown.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I learned about that, and I did it a few
months ago. It was pretty impressive. Wow. And the real
formula for proper laundry is actually so there's there's two camps.
There's some people that believe firmly in laundry soap, which
is the more it's like literal like soap flakes. That's oh,
(03:31):
people did it before the modern era. So I did
buy these like soap flakes for Marseille, France that are
like hands and milled in cauldrons. But oh my god,
I'm doing that for a long while. And then I've
recently discovered I think it's called it's a leap leap pass.
(03:53):
It's an enzyme and it's like the one and only
enzyme you shall look out for in laundry detergent. And
the easiest way to get it is in the old
school tied powder. I have to be the powder, so.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That with.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
A rint cycle of boric ass is a game changer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh my gosh, can you like feel the difference?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yes, Oh my gosh, I'm begging you on my knees.
Please please make a video that's your laundry routine. Okay,
I'm not kidding. I need to see.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That, Okay, I will.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Wow, I didn't know you were a laundry head. This
is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I didn't know either until I discovered redded.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I do think that's like a getting older thing. Is
like all of a sudden, you get really nerdy about
like household stuff, like the amount of fridge organization videos
I'm watching, the amount of like Sunday Reset videos I'm
watching like it is my favorite show ever. I love
it so much. Oh fuck well, I mean I have
(05:10):
a communal laundry space, so I don't think I'll be
up to all that, but I am so fascinated in this.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Now, do you have a bathtub?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I do?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Every day? Is in your future?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm scared of what Elsie.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But it's like popping a z it right, It's like
scary but so satisfying.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I love that. Wow, amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I love what I'm doing instead of reading.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Worth it worth it me? Reading doesn't get my house
any cly. In fact, it's the opposite.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, so today we're reading another whole single chapter, chapter seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes, but before we get into Beginner's love let's take
a moment and have a Judy minuti, which is where
we spend one minute or more or less to talk
about the most Judy bloom thing that happened to us
this week. So, Jody, what is yours?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Mine is very reminiscent of Sandy Pressman in WiFi and
her husband was his name Norm? Norm.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think sounds right, but I'm really scared about what
you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, it's actually not what you'd think. It's regarding dog poop. Oh,
they spend a lot of time in that book talking
about their dogs sticks and wheeze. That's always stuck with
right sticks and wheeze, And they tally their sticks and
wheeze once they've done the dog walking. And I notice
(06:57):
that like Tyler and I kind of do the same thing.
It's very like when the dogs go outside, it's always
like did they poop? Did they poop? There's there. I
don't know what it is, what it is about dog
owners and monitoring the poop, but it's you gotta you
gotta know. So I just had that moment We're like, oh,
(07:19):
I understand the sticks and wheeze.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Now you updated your beloved on how much the dog
sticked or weed.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's a good it's a good way to bond.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's good. I love that. I'm so proud of you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So that's me. It's kind of boring, but I'd love
to hear yours.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So, as I mentioned previously, my friend Melissa from high
school just moved into the floor below me and it
has been a game changer. It's so fun. Like we
don't even hang out that much, but what we have
been doing is doing chores together and that is bliss.
It's so fun. And the most recent chory did together,
(08:01):
it was Monday or Tuesday night. I was showered in
my gym jams on the couch watching TV. It was
probably ten o'clock and she texted me. She's like, when
I get home from work in about twenty minutes, will
you help me with a mission. It was like, great, absolutely,
I will put regular clothes back on, come meet her
(08:24):
at the door. And we got outside and somebody had
left the desk on the side of the road at
our house and she's like, will you please help me
carry this desk in? And it was the most romantic
thing that has happened to me in so long because
I don't know if I've expressed on this podcast. I
(08:45):
love picking shit up off the street. Yeah, and I
find my neighborhood in Hollywood to be a bountiful harvest.
Just oh, I am hunting and gathering stuff on the
street like you wouldn't believe. Half of the furniture in
my apartment is this way. Some of my dish I
found a lovely dish set I found one time. I
(09:08):
found a fully wrapped DVD of Spice World like it.
It is bountiful. Now it is jealous. Yeah, it is
sad because I feel like once or twice a quarter,
the thing on the street is like a big box
of screenwriting books or like acting books.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Very specific Hollywood trash.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, well, whenever I see a box like that, I'm like, oh,
I'm imagining they actually they got their dream job. And
so they're like, I don't need a book like this.
I could write a book.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But I love picking up trash on the street. And
almost everybody in my life hates this about me. So
to find someone who shares my passion and who I
can enable, uh is beautiful. So we hauled this. It
was a beautiful mint green desk and vanity that was
(10:05):
just lying on the street and was one of the
legs broken. Absolutely did it have any knobs on it? Well,
no it didn't. But we hauled it up from the
street into Melissa's apartment at like ten thirty and I
felt such joy. So I feel like that's friendship.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I that is true friendship. I love that, and I
fully am with you on street treasures. There's not a
ton around my area. There's plenty of stuff on the street,
but it's all like, it's very depressing. It's all like, uh,
like someone died, and there's a bunch of like disability
mobility devices like an old like bedpan or something, and
(10:47):
then a lot of baby stuff too. So yeah, you know,
it's really life cycle oriented. Everyone wants your fucking crusty
ass booster seat. No, so I'm very jealous of you.
That sounds so fun and amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
A similar thing did happen the other day when I
was walking on my street and there was a pair
of dentures on the street, Like, this is so funny
and disgusting. I hate that I saw this, but I
also love that I saw this.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Oh, someone is national. I wonder if there was an
old man fire and he pulled out his dentures.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He knocked his denters out. Yeah, maybe you gotta hope.
You gotta hope. Do we have any letters before we start?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
We do. We have one short but very informative letter.
This one is from Bloomhead Angela. She says, HI, love
your podcast. You asked about the negative teen pregnancy book
that lead a reference. Oh, it sounds like Mister and
Missus Bojo Jones from nineteen sixty seven. I have an
(12:01):
old copy of it, but it may still be in print.
Looking over to your new episode.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
WHOA Mister and miss do you want me to read
about this? Okay? It appears to be a nineteen sixty
seven novel by Anne Head Oh. It was made into
a made for TV movie starring Desi Arnez Junior.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
That's Cool? Football hero Bojo Jones and his girlfriend July
are in love. On the night of the prom. They
do what so many couples in love do. Soon, July
finds out that she's pregnant with Bojo's baby, and suddenly
the life they once knew is over. Now mister and
Missus bo Jones must come to grips with a very
(12:51):
adult decision that they must make. It's a situation that
holds more possibilities and challenges than they ever bargained for.
It could bring them closer or drive them apart. As
the baby grows and changes, so will they. Oh and
then the front the cover I see on thrift books
is very sexy and good and the subtitle on the
(13:14):
cover is She's sixteen, He's seventeen. A pregnant bride and
her bewildered groom playing a grown up game with adult consequences.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh that is good.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
That does sound like what's being described.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh I see the cover you're referencing.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah. Who they're doing kind of a spider Man kiss?
They are. Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
The actors in the TV movie are very cute and
very little looking. They look like children.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh yeah, yikes, that's horrifying. Those are baby beats. Wow.
Does nice Junior, very handsome. I never knew. I guess
checks out but makes sense. Wow, good Paul, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Thank you so much, Bloomhead Angela appreciate that one. Let's
remember this for a future book maybe.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah yeah, put a pin in mister and missus
Bojo Jones.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, should we get into the book.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Let's get into the damn book. We're reading chapter seventeen.
Ooh cool, okay, so for roll call. Sorry. We have Joel,
who is seventeen going on eighteen, okay, Lisel. We have Leda,
(14:39):
who I believe is also seventeen. We have Mom who
is a galerina, and Dad who is a food critic.
Then we have Burger, Joel's friend, who is also seventeen.
And we have Ingrid, who is Burger's crush, who is
a twenty four your old doctor. I'm adding emphasis because
(15:03):
this will be important in this chapter. But Burger seventeen,
Ingrid twenty four, just making that clear. We also have
a tiny cameo for me and Jim teacher missus Jizinski,
mister Jinzinski. And that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, okay, so I want to read the first sentence
of chapter seventeen. You're gonna find this hard to believe,
maybe impossible, But Berger actually went to bed with the
lady doctor whoa.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh. I was reading it this morning and I screamed,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Is this real life? Are we in a dream?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Molly?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Like, let's pinch ourselves and yes, I think we're awake.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Wow. I will say this chapter had many such moments
like this, but I was like, true, what the fuck true?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So yeah, Burger and the lady doctor have slept together,
and Burger is just smitten, and he also can't believe
it happened. No, and he's telling Joel all about it,
and he brings up this concept where medieval knights fall
in love with their royal ladies and it's kind of
like a forbidden love, you know, and typically not sexual.
(16:27):
And I guess they learned about this in school and
it's called courtly love. Yeah, I know. We both did
some research. My content is mostly from Wikipedia, but I
also found oh my lot of articles and it was
almost overwhelming with how much information there is about courtly love.
(16:48):
But basically it started off as a literary concept, so
Troubadours and poetry and the theme being nobility and chivalry,
where knights set out on adventures and performed deeds for
these noble ladies. Originally created for entertainment of the nobility,
so imagine these you know, it's basically their version of smut,
(17:10):
like ooh, the knight who wants me? But it kind
of carried over into like medieval pop culture and attracted
a larger audience, and so loving nobly was considered to
be an enriching and improving practice. And there's all sorts
(17:32):
of scholarly writing on courtly love, and it seems like
there's two camps. Some scholars view courtly love as proclamation
of femininity, and it's like a spiritual moral force, and
it's very noble, and it's in contrast to what they
call the ironclad chauvinism of the time. The thought is
(17:55):
that perhaps the Church viewed it as sexual rebellion, and
then other scholars think it was more tied to the
Church's effort to civilize the crude, feudal codes of the time.
The prevalence of arranged marriages required other outlets for the
expression of a more personal romantic love. So it was
(18:18):
not the reaction to the prudery of the Church, but
to the nuptial customs of the era. So this was
more of like an outlet.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If you have to marry this guy that your dad
picked out for you, don't worry. You get to also
lust after this other guy.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Because he is surely in love with you.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's totally fine.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, so interesting. Did you have any did you find
any other info?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I did, so. I was wondering because I feel like
I learned about this in college when we were reading
the de Cameron. But I know a lot of people
read that in high school, so I that's where this
came about. But they talk about it a lot in
terms of like ar Threian legends. I think probably the
(19:10):
two best examples of Courtney love one not Courtney love.
The best example of Courtney love is celebrity skin. I
think the courtly love are Lancelot and Guinevere. So if
you know, Gwenevere is King Arthur's wife, but Lancelot luss
(19:34):
after her even though King Arthur is his best friend,
and they don't. I don't believe they consummate it. But
that's like the whole deal with Courtney love is like.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Courtly I came saying, Corney love.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, Courtney Love consummates. Okay, so I have to take
a sidebar. I'm so sorry. The sidebar I have to
think is I was listening to a podcast with Tony Hawk,
and Tony Hawk was talking about taking his family on
a vacation and he's like, we took all of my
sons and daughters and everybody and their spouses. But we
(20:07):
left my grandson at home with this other grandma, and
I took a beat, like, wait a second. Francis pin
Cobain is married to Tony Hawk's son, meaning that the
other grandma in question is courtney love. What a wild thing?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Incredible?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Okay? And the other example of courtly love in literature
is usually Dante and Beatrice from Dante's Inferno, because he
like barely knows her and yet is going to helen
back to see her. And then the one author describes
courtly love as having four basic principles. So number one,
(20:52):
the love has to be illegitimate and furtive. Number two,
the male lover is in an inferior position and the
woman in an elevated one. So far, so good. Three
the man does quest test or trials in the woman's name.
And number four there is an art to it, such
as chivalry. So basically they like codified being nice to
(21:18):
a lady and deferring to her.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That's the thing. I was like, Oh, this all sounds
like what it should be.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Right O. Yeah not no, yeah, so we should all
be courtney love.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
This is interesting. All that said, Joel muses that courtly
Love never sounded very convincing to.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Him, so, yeah, we bet we know, we know, maybe.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He was more of a Kurt Kobaan guy. Yeah, Burger
does see parallels between himself and these nights, you know,
with a lady doctor. He's been very chivalrous and respectful
and basically all those four things, and he found out, Wow,
ladies like that. He's having this moment where he's finally
(22:11):
realizing that women don't really like when you're just trying
to get them in bed all the time, and I
just it really blows his mind. But it's very sweet,
it is.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Do you want to read that part that starts with well,
the thing is sure, it's so funny. It's right after
Joela is saying Courtney co.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yes, here you read it?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, Well, the thing is I think one reason I
turned off so many girls was that I was so
much on the make. I really acted obnoxious. All I
thought of when I was with them was how to
get them into bed. They thought I was awful.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I was.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I used to go home understanding perfect how they felt.
If any of them have done it with me, I'd
have thought they were total jerks. And this is this
is funny to remember how we first met Burger. And
we first met Burger like clowning on the girls in
the movie theater, Like we met him in the most
(23:17):
obnoxious way. So to have him come around and be like, whoa,
that wasn't the way is.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Very refreshing, very refreshing. Yeah, he's great.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I love Burger. I honestly, I will say I feel
like our early investment in Burger is paying dividends.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, we know how to pick them, we do.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So. Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Joel's asking like, but yeah, but like how did you
have sex? He really wants to get to the meat
of the story. Burger's, you know, weaving this beautiful tale
of like how he wooed her. But Joel's like, excuse me.
At the chase, Joel.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Keeps going like, did you get very fought?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, totally. So we learn that Ingrid, the lady doctor,
had Burger over one night and she cooked for him. Okay,
this part is a little suspicious to me though, because
he said she cooked something, and Burger is known for
(24:22):
his attention to detail and storytelling. He talks about what
so and so was wearing, what something smelled like, felt like,
the fact that he didn't have a name for the
dish that the lady doctor cooked him. I'm like, oh,
is this made up? Is he making this up? That's
just my spidery sense cooked something.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You don't think what he says right after that explains
maybe why they didn't know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Okay, okay, so let me I'm I'm definitely dilly dowling.
Let's get to the tell me more part. So, yeah,
she cooked some thing. They smoked a few joints.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, that was the part that I was talking about.
I'm like, they don't care, they're just.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I true, true, true. He lets its slip that he
will he's not sure if he'll go to college next year.
Oh and he's like, oh shit, that's not like what
a twenty four year old man would be saying. But
guess what everybody Ingrid has known all along that he's
(25:30):
a high schooler. She has known ever since he broke
his foot on the beer bottle, because en route to
the hospital, I guess she searched his pockets for ID
and found all his like school id stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Wait you mean this is really serious?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, I'm just horsing around. Oh, what's wrong with you?
It's the most serious thing that's ever happened to me?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Don't you listen? I do well.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I'm gonna marry her. I don't care if I have
to wait until she's seventy five and I'm sixty eight.
I'll wait until I'm sixty eight. You want to know something,
you know, I consider myself a realist, right, even sort
of cynical maybe, I mean certainly not like you, kind
of dreamy and vague, and hey, okay, scratch the dreamy
(26:25):
and vague. But don't you basically think of me as
fairly down to earth, well ingrid. There's no other girl
I want, and there would never will be. That's it.
That's the bottom line. I mean, I really believe that
we were destined to me. I believe all that total
worship I used to laugh at and it's all due
to you me.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, because what if.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
You hadn't wanted me to come along to that Simon
and Garfuncle concert, we'd have never met.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I thought you said it was destined, so you'd have
met anyway. Maybe you should be grateful to the beer bottle.
What if you I've been tripped on it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Don't joke. I'm never drinking anything but beer for the
rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So wait, what happened after she told you she'd known
all along you were in high school?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Huh you want the dirty parts?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Sure, Well I got all confused and embarrassed and said
I'd only lied because I was scared she wouldn't want
to see me if she knew my real age. She
said she thought people were whatever age they thought themselves.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Az.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Her grandmother was ninety four and the youngest person in
spirit of anyone she knew. God, I love her family.
Don't they sound great? A ninety four year old grandmother.
Her father is a tool and die worker, whatever that is.
They're real like people. They eat in the kitchen, they
(27:50):
grow their own.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Vegetables, eat in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
They're Jewish right right for generations back.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
So your parents won't have a fit.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Fuck my parents. I don't care. I don't care if
no one in my family ever speaks to me again.
Hope he's good. She'll love Ingrid. I know it. Everyone
will love her. You can't help it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
She huh, she's just well, how did you get her
into bed?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
God? You really have changed. You've got a dirty mind.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I'm giving you all this wonderful background material, and.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
You have to tell me.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I just mean, I know it's embarrassing, that's all. Well.
She just said, after saying all that stuff about age,
that she thought I was a very mature, sensitive, wonderful person,
and she sometimes had the feeling that maybe my feelings
weren't just as platonic, and she thought it would be
best if we talked about it. So I said they weren't.
(28:49):
I mean, I didn't say I'd been thinking of nothing
else since I met her. I was reasonably cool for me.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
What did she say?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
She just looked at me and smiled. She has such
a great smile. God, and she said, my feelings aren't
totally platonic either, and then we kind of kissed each other,
and about three seconds later we were in bed. I
was so nervous. It wasn't even I mean, I didn't
even in some ways enjoy it. I mean I did,
(29:20):
but I just had this strange feeling like it wasn't
really happening, or that was some kind of joke, or
that she disappear. That was exactly the same feeling. Remember
when he first had Lida in bed, if he closed
his eyes, she would disappear, So wow. Okay, first, what
do you think of this? What was your reaction?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Mollie, Oh boy, I love Burger and I understand being
charmed by Burger. I don't love the age gap of
a twenty four year old woman having sex with a
seventeen year old kid. I know that it's the impact.
(30:01):
I think culturally we feel like the impact is different
if it's a woman who is older. But I don't
love the optics of nows. But if I divorced that
from that, I'm really happy that Berger is so changed
in that he is having this profound experience. And yeah,
(30:29):
so I feel both both ways at once.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I know me too. I'm so torn like this is,
you know, sounds like it's good for him, who knows
what's gonna happen, but for now, like he's ecstatic, he's
a changed man. But I do keep thinking of you know,
there's so many of the stories about like the hot teacher.
It's like the Mary kay Laturno's over and over and
(30:53):
over again, and they're always like around like twenty four
first year or second year teachers. There's something about that
age where now I'm looking up Mary Kayla Turno's age,
I think, oh, who was a bit older.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I know, I was looking up Aaron Taylor Johnson and
that is a bigger age gap too, So it's not. Look,
it's not the worst age gap ever. And it's just like,
I just think it squicks me out a little bit
when someone is in high school and someone is in college,
because I just oh, and even that, like she started
her professional career, so she's like fully out of school
(31:31):
and he's in high school, and that feels weird to me,
even if it is like it's your tail end of
your senior year of high school, Like, it feels weird
to me. I wouldn't want my son dating someone that
was that much older, Yeah, I would, just I would
be so curious what a woman that age, even with
(31:53):
like a really mature like fun high school or like
Burger is. I I would feel icked.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Out about it same. I mean, I really do think
so much of it is like the probably the Gaga
eyes he's giving her and the attention, and he makes
her feel like the only woman in the world, So
I get it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They get it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Throughout this conversation, Joel's noticing something different about Burger among
all these other things, and it turns out Burger's not
smoking like he usually would be. Uh Ingrid has gotten
him to stop smoking. Even she's like really worry about him.
She had a cousin that died of lung cancer, and
she says she's been lying awake in bed worrying about him.
(32:41):
And then he's even gone and apologized to mister Jazinski
for how he was acting, I mean, truly reformed. Mister
Jazinski is like, thank god, I thought you were going
to murder a president.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
WHOA where's that come from?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And then we find out it's Joel's birthday.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
According to astro talk dot com, oh here's this Okay,
I'm going to read specifically an aries Man in love.
It says there's nothing quite like being in love with
an aries man. He's passionate, intense, and always up for
a good time. If you are lucky enough to be
in a relationship with one, you will never be bored.
(33:47):
Aries men are known for being impulsive and spontaneous. Thus
you can expect your fair share of surprises, keep your
sense of adventure strong if you want to keep him.
He's incredibly communicative and wants to know all about you.
He's very physical and will express his love through touch,
and he's not afraid to show his feelings and I'll
always be honest with you. And in general, Aries is
(34:11):
a fire sign and the men are passionate, daring, and
full of energy. I don't know if I feel that
relates to.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Oh no, I sounds much more like Burger.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I guess the physical touch thing makes sense, but I
don't know. I mean, I don't feel like that's an
ARIES thing. I feel like that's like a teenage boy thing.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, it's so hard to say they want to be touching.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, okay, But the thing that is hanging over his
head is he's still worried about Leida being pregnant. And
his parents give him two hundred dollars for his birthday.
So you know, I had to whip out the inflation calculator.
So in nineteen eighty three, getting two hundred dollars has
(34:59):
the same buying pass as six hundred and fifty five dollars. Wowwive,
So that is a nice little chunk of change.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Wow wow Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So he's really hype because he wants to use it
to buy a new stereo.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yes, I like that. He describes his current stereo as cheesy.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I don't know what that means in the stereo context,
but he goes the one I have is Okay, it's
basically kind of cheesy. But if you like music, a
good system can make a big difference.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Okay, he's a music connoisseur, remember, say yeah, oh oh wait,
I bet we could figure this out.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Let me look. April nineteen eighty three is when this
takes place. Hold on, are we.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Looking up stereos?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
No, I'm looking up calendar. Oh okay, so he said
his birthday is on a Tuesday. So his birthday? Guys,
we figured it out. His birthday is April twelfth, Okay,
the day the Titanic.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Say, oh, I think that's also Hitler's birthday.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Is not Hitler's birthday for twenty.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Oh that's right. Who is April twelve?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Let's see April twelve? Famous birthdays?
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Maybe it's an ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Listen, it was either Hitler or my ex boy Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Clar Danes, Clar Danes.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Tiny, Tim Brendan Ury Sheer, sharonan True, Thompson, Hilloe, Kardashian's
son daughter excuse me? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
And Beverly Cleary, whoa still crystal.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Oh boy, okay, oh and I'm sorry, Titanic heads, don't
kill me. I forgot Titanic sinks on April fifteenth, nineteen twelve.
My bad.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
They were still living large on the twelfth.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, they were, and they were having sex in people's cars. Okay, great, okay, excellent,
let's get back on track. M oh And So for
his birthday, Joel's parents are going to take him to
dinner at Windows on the World. And everybody knows Windows
(37:20):
on the World is a fancy restaurant downtown, but specifically
it's located on the one hundred and seventh floor of
the North Tower of the World Trade Center. So, yikes,
that deserves its own special report, and we'll do that
in our Odds and Ends episode. So if you have
any specific info about that that you want us to
talk about, let us know, because we did a preliminary
(37:43):
deep dive and there's so much that I just don't
feel comfortable squeezing it in anyway. They're about to go
to dinner and mom says, there's a letter for you
on your desk, but hurry because we gotta go, and
so he thinks it's from his aunt Muriel, and he
opens it. Oh gosh, snames my heart sink. He opens
(38:06):
it and it's a Father's Day card and inside it
said to the best father ever, much love on this
very special day. It was signed L and at the
bottom PS Happy Birthday. This was the second time I
screamed in reading this, what the.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Fuck were on your side?
Speaker 2 (38:29):
It's literally Tyra Banks. I was rooting for you. And
when I first when I first read this, I was like, Rida,
this is a pitch black joke. If you're making a joke, like, yikes, buddy,
that is fucked up. If it's a joke, we'll wait
(38:50):
to litigate on that, but initial reaction is.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yikes, yikes either way if it's a joke, if it's real,
it's all very dark, so dark.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Though. I didn't do this, but I thought about doing
One time. I had basically a couple of dates and
I slept with this guy and he was like very
distant afterwards and such that I'm like, I know he's
gonna like break up with me or whatever. And he
(39:24):
invited me out a couple weeks later, and I was like,
I just know this is gonna happen, that he's gonna
break it off. With me, and so an evil part
of my brain was like, should I make up a
pregnancy scare just to be like a prank, because it's like,
I'm not upset that he doesn't want to see me anymore,
(39:45):
but I think that he's really worried about like breaking
up with me, So it would be funny and dark
sided to be like I have some news. And I
didn't do that because I'm a normal person, but I
can relate to the evil part part of someone's brain
(40:07):
that would think that would be a funny, yeah thing
to do.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I think it's totally normal to have that like idea
pop into your head. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
But I would never do that because that would be insane. Yeah,
And so Luda sends him that crazy card and Joel
is like all in knots about it. But they go
to dinner and it's like really delicious and the view
(40:39):
is terrific, but he can't relax and his parents are
talking about going to Knox's wedding next week. Truly, I
don't even know. I don't think that conversation is worth recounting,
but like, no, they're.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Just like cheers to the mysteries of life. Yeah, Joel's
like cool.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Hey, So he got home and he lays on his
bed and he's like, I don't even want to call
Lda because I don't want to spoil my day more
than it's already spoiled. Yeah, but at like ten five,
Lida calls, Hi, we just got home from dinner. I'm
(41:18):
sorry I didn't have a chance to call earlier.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Did you get my note?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It had to be on your birthday.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Listen, would you like to eat out Saturday? I thought
I might take you out for your birthday.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Parents already dud I know.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
But this would be my treat. You said you like
Japanese food, and there's a really good place my parents
told me about down there.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Sure that sounds good, And that's the extent of the conversation. Hi.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
But Lyda being like, I'm sorry it had to be
on your birthday, Like you chose this.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
This is okay. So now that we're getting confirmation that
it's real and not an extremely evil prank, Lida what
the fuck?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Like she had to have known a few days earlier
to like have gone to get this card mail it
wait for the postage to arrive, so it is truly horrific.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Is so bad. It's so bad. Which also I feel
bad telling that story I just told And just for
the record, I would never ever do something like that ever, totally.
I am just joking with my friends. Yeh, a joke,
like you know, I would never ever do things like that.
I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think that's funny.
(42:45):
If I'm giving Leda the benefit of the doubt, I
think she is trying to be such a cool girl
about this. Yeah, and she always has a snappy answer,
and she is very funny that I think. I think
she's like, this is me being cool girl pregnant teen
again or and or I wonder if in Leita's mind
(43:12):
there is a world in which she sent this to
Joel and Joel picked up the phone and was like,
I love you. I'm so we will make this work together,
like let's do this. I do think pertaps there is
a version of her that kind of wanted that to
be the answer A little yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Interesting, Yeah, I think I think you're onto something there.
It seems like a test for sure, like wait till
he gets the card and then make a phone call.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Oh god, it's so bad. Don't ever do anything like this.
This is up.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Also, I'm like, she, you know, she's planning a sushi
meal knowing she's pregnant. I mean, maybe she doesn't know
you're not supposed to eat.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
But so in a world where people are like, I'm vegetarian,
all I eat is chicken, I don't think they know that. Like,
I feel like in the eighties a lot of people
are like still smoking and drinking with totally. I don't
think that's that big of a deal. No, but uh, yikes,
(44:22):
that sucks. And I like, I think Joel is reacting
to it poorly, but I don't think he was given
an opportunity to react to it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Well, yeah, I would probably react poorly.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I would react so poorly. Oh yeah, this sucks. I
hate I'm so, I'm just like upset. Yes, I just
I'll just read this. I'll just read this last paragraph.
It's really good. When I got off the phone, I
felt lousy. I wasn't sure if Leita had sensed how
I felt. Usually she's pretty sensitive about which can be
(45:00):
either good or a bad thing. The trouble is, I
still felt angry, and it wasn't just her letting me
know my birthday. It was the whole thing. Okay, I'm
not a girl, and so obviously I can't totally imagine
what it's like to make love knowing it might lead
to a pregnancy. But I think if I was, I'd
have been a lot more careful than Lida was. She
(45:21):
could have told me she left her diaphragm at home
that time when we were here. I had those condoms.
I could have used them. She hates it when I
say men are more organized than women and plan ahead better.
Maybe they don't always, but it seems to me if
men got pregnant, they'd be more careful. You wouldn't even
need to have abortions, Leda said. Okay, Leda said, if
(45:46):
men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. She read
that in some feminist magazine.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
That was the end of the chapter.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Okay, well, everybody knows that women more organized and plan ahead. Yeah,
and everybody knows that there would be GMO vacations or
social gatherings without women organizing and planning ahead.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, so drot that down.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, and uh it's you know.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
I I see what he's saying, because I do think
Leedo was kind of not as organized as she could
have been here. I think the things that Joel's not
taking into account is like, and how could he He's
like a seventeen newly eighteen year old boy, Like this
(46:36):
is this is like varsity level emotional intelligence. Yeah for
the eighties that you just wouldn't know or very few
people would think about. But like there is sort of
the sexual politics of her being like a young girl
and wanting to do really well by him and being
like sexy and fun and not ruined the vibe by
(47:02):
saying like, oh hey, pit stop, I don't know my diaphragm,
or like even or even like we kind of have
seen that. Like there are times when she's like, I
don't want to have sex and he's popping a bona.
So I think there is I don't want to let
Leada off the hook at all, because clear she's very
(47:22):
smart and very strident, and I think there are times
when she could acted way better. But I think there
is like an invisible dynamic here of her being socialized
to not think she could speak up for herself in
certain moments.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, and I'm just thinking about all the dumb things
I did, you know, regarding relationships and sex when I
was in college, so even a few years older than
her that were equally ill thought out and badly executed.
So yes, a lot of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Wow, So this is not where I saw this going.
I don't know, though, I kind of knew she was pregnant.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
I know, I feel like they were telegraphing it from
so far away.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
I thought maybe it was a red herring, like okay.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Ha ha ha. No. Yeah, before we end this episode,
let's do a segment that we like to do called
Yearbook Club, where we get a prompt and we go
through our old yearbooks to find stories. So the prompt
for this week was frenemie m okay.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
As always, these need a little bit of backstory.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
So this.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Entry was from what we called the Senior Supplement. When
I was a senior. They do this thing. It's kind
of like a non school sponsored publication. I don't know
who organized this and got it printed, but it basically
every senior gets as much space as they want to
like type up personal notes and inside jokes to all
(49:02):
their friends and then it gets like bound into this
little book from Kinko's. And but these these they are
so raunchy and like people I'm sure. I'm sure the
teachers slipped through this. I'm sure the parents did. These
are it's like full on, like allowing someone to read
your diary or But this one was from a fellow
(49:28):
senior name. She was the incumbent high school newspaper editor
in chief, and I was new at the school. I
showed up being like, I've worked on school papers before,
I have a better way. So so she here, she
(49:51):
comes into her senior year like working at the paper,
working her way up, thinking she's going to be the
sole editor in chief. And then I formed a committee
to make there be three editors in chief because that's
how we did it at my old school.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
And everybody was into this idea except her. So basically
we surped her and pork had to just sit and
take it. And so I don't think she liked me
very much, But she was also really trying to be
my friend, and I kind of cottoned on to the
(50:28):
fact that like maybe she was trying to keep her
enemies closer. You know. She would she would call my
house a lot and be like, what are you doing,
and I just and we weren't friends, and she would
want to like hang, and I just it was just
a vibe that was off. And so I would, you know,
I would tell my mom, like tell her I'm not
home kind of thing. I didn't handle it very well. Yeah,
(50:51):
and then I think she got the message, and then
we just didn't really speak for most of the year.
Bush she wrote in her senior Supplement two and this
was very unusual. I think she's the only person that
did this. But she wrote a note to every single
person in our grade.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Holy how many people were in your grade?
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Uh? They were like maybe one fifty holy shit, something
like that. Yeah, but they were very short notes. And
what she wrote to me was Jody Worthington always thought
I was your stalker?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Oh no, she knew.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
And then this is also very cryptic. She wrote, where's
your mother? Three question marks? I thought that she was
your prom date. I don't know what that means. I
don't think I ever knew what that meant. And it's
this is very related. It's very related to my previous
yearbook entry, which was my prom date. But I yeah,
(51:53):
I remember reading that and just like my heart sinking,
like thought I was her stalker. Oh I'm sorry. So
this doesn't really fall into the frenemi bokus okay, okay, oh,
and I do. I did read through what she wrote
to everybody, like as a reread, because this is pretty funny.
(52:17):
But she did list a good like twenty people and
said I don't know you guys too well, in fact,
not at all, but good luck and thanks for being
alive in my class and stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Oh my god, Sonny.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
You know iconic.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Wow, that's honestly you. You undersold that that's a really
good one.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Mine actually spans two yearbooks. So in my sixth grade yearbook,
someone wrote, Mollie, you are the smartest kid I know.
Have a great gr number eight summer but signed. And
(53:08):
I was like, huh, that name sounds familiar. And then
I remembered and I looked in my let's see my
junior year yearbook, and there's an inscription it says it says,
(53:29):
dear mo school spelled skool. School has been gay, but
now I get to see your sexy body all summer.
Don't be afraid to give it to me. Nick.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
It's like wow.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Oh. And then so I went to middle school with
this person. Didn't think much of them, and we went
to high school together, and I think I had a
class with them maybe, but I didn't think anything of
them until they wrote this in my yearbook, and then
I was like, oh, so there's a time in their
(54:13):
life when someone will write school was gay, and you'll
be like hello. So that summer, somehow we started like dating.
I guess because I think I gave him my phone
number and he called me one day and I went
(54:36):
out to dinner with him and his family, which is weird.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Oh this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, it gets more interesting. So that whole summer we
had like a phone call texting relationship, and then one
day I took my Razor scooter over to his house
in the afternoon and we did under the shirt stuff.
It was the first time I ever did under the
shirt stuff, and I really liked him, but I didn't
(55:05):
want to go all the way. And then he came
to my birthday party later in the summer, and he
came late, and I was really like a big big
timing him to all my friends before he came, I'm like,
oh my god, dish Ish my boyfriend. We've done under
the shirt stuff. I love dish Man. It's gonna be great.
I really like him. He's amazing. He shows up late,
(55:27):
he's like not affectionate to me. He gave me a
birthday card from his face. It wasn't signed from him,
it was signed from his family, and I had twenty
dollars in it. And then at the end of the party,
he's like, oh, my mom's not picking me up. How
(55:47):
am I gonna get home? And I was like, ah,
I don't I don't really know. I don't know. And
so he took my Razor scooter and went home with it.
And that was the last time I ever saw my
Razor scooter. Haha. Yeah and yeah, so that sucked. And
(56:10):
then further furthermore, I feel like every couple of years
he like slides back into my life and is like, hey,
what's up. And every time I'm like, every single time.
The last time this happened was I think last year.
At some point he like slides in and tries to
like get with me again, and every single time, I'm like,
that's nice. Where the fuck is my Razor scooter? Ah?
(56:34):
It was a blue Razor scooter and I never got
it back. Done. You touch my boobs and stole my
Razor scooter. That's it for me? Uh, huh turn into
it in front of me.
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Oh my god, really just like or had had some balls,
really did he really did? Really, don't give me that
sexy body. School is gay school?
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Hey? Number one school is gay.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
No, I'm not give me that body.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And I was.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I read that and I was like, oh, yeah, oh
the amount of like gay in our word horrible. I'm
sorry everybody, everyone. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
I to be clear, I don't think I was writing that. No,
I don't think I wrote it down, but I know
I at least said the other one. I didn't say
the first one because of a very impactful Hillary Duff PSA.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Oh I don't think we had PSA's like that, you know,
in the late nineties.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
So I don't do you know which one I'm talking.
Have you seen the Hillary?
Speaker 1 (57:45):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
It is a piece of art, but basically Hillary Duff.
Here's two girls trying on clothes and saying that, and
she pops out of the dressing room as Hillary Duff,
and she's like, when you say that, do you know
what you're saying? That's not nice? Change the generation. It
ended homophobia, single and love that.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I love that. That was so good, so good, bloomheads.
If you have anything to do with frenemies in your
your book, let us know. It can be very big,
very broad. We love these inscriptions, so keep them coming.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
Yeah, and let us know what you think the prompt
for the next episode should be.
Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, let's yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:35):
We'll leave it up to you. The power is yours.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, okay, bye bye
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